Commissioners' Court - Regular Meeting

Y'all have 30 more seconds. We keep talking. Okay, it is 9 o'clock on Monday, August 24th, 2026, and I call the private attorney commissioner's court to order. Today we have Alan Copeland from Central Baptist who will do our invocation. If you would please stand for that and remain standing for the pledges.

Thank you, everybody. Next on the agenda is the recognition of minutes from the August 10th and August 12th Potter County Commissioner's Court. Is there any changes to that? If not, so recognized. Number four, budget amendments to consider and act upon a budget amendment request for fiscal year 2526. Brandon.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Opposed, same sign. That passes 5-0. Number five, vouchers to consider and act upon the approval of the vouchers as presented by the county auditor's office. Check numbers 223444 through 223680 and wire transfers 2534 through 2540 in the amount of $4,387,824.33. I will need a motion and a second to discuss. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments? Okay, all in favor? Raise your right hand. And that passes 5-0. Number six, insurance and resource. Judy, you have anything? Judy? Do you have anything?

Anybody have any questions for Judy? All right. Recognized. Thank you, ma'am. Number seven, Treasurer's Monthly Report. Good morning.

Anybody have any questions for Brooke? Thank you. Thank you, Brooke. So recognizing that. Number 8A, discussion and possible action related relative to 8A tax increment and reinvestment zone number 2. TO RECEIVE A REPORT AND DISCUSS THE CURRENT EAST GATEWAY TIERS NUMBER TWO GOALS BOUNDARY AND ACREAGE AND DISCUSS RECENT TIERS TWO BOARD DIRECTION TO EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES TO INCREASE THE ZONE CONTINGENT UPON CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL AS ALLOWED BY CHAPTER 311 OF THE TEXAS TAX CODE.

Thank you, Drew. Is there anything? We don't need to take action on this. It's just for information. No, ma'am.

Anybody else have anything for Drew? Okay. Thank you, sir. Okay. Number 8B, elections to consider. Yeah.

You did. Thank you for the reminder. 8K, fiscal year 2025 audit to recognize the fiscal year 2025 audit reports issued by Hankins and Estep. Good morning. Good morning.

Okay, thank you, sir. Appreciate you being here. You're welcome. All right. Number 8B, elections to consider and approve the following for the November 3rd, 2026 general election. Order appointing election officials and rate of pay and order appointing officers for Central County Station. Good morning, Christy.

All right. Any questions for Chrissy? All right. Okay. You have to vote on it. I know. I need a motion.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Opposed? Thanks. And that passes 5-0. And number 8C, elections to recognize early voting and election day polling locations for November 3rd, 2026 general election.

All right. Any questions for Christy? Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. All right, number 8D, Panhandle Auto Burglary Theft Unit, PAB 2, Senate Bill 224, Converter Grant. Mr. McBride, how nice to see you again, sir. Good morning, everybody.

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. We'll let it go. We've seen some. That passes five to zero. And?

Okay. Any questions for Patrick if not, I need a motion.

I have a motion and a second on that one. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, that passes 5-0. Thank you, sir. Number 8F, website hosting services to consider and act upon. approving the updated pricing plan and quote for the Potter County website hosting services for fiscal year 27-28, as provided by TACC IRA Julie Smith.

Any questions for Julie on this? If not, I need a motion.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. That passes 5-0. Number 8G, Rural Sheriff's Grant, to consider and act upon a request from the Sheriff's Office to apply for the Rural Sheriff's Office Grant, Senate Bill 22, for fiscal year 27, administered by the Texas Comptroller's Office, pursuant to recent legislation. Sheriff.

Okay. It's kind of handy, isn't it? Yes, ma'am. Any questions for the sheriff?

A motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Opposed? And that passes 5-0. Uh, county clerk to consider an act upon approving the kind of records archive.

Any questions for Julie? In motion, please.

A motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, that passes 5-0. Number 8I, tiers 1 and tiers 2, adjustment to consider an act upon approving an increase in cost for tiers 2. number one, in the amount of $16,945, and tiers number two, in the amount of $6,822, a total increase of $23,677. Brandon.

Okay. Any questions for Brandon on that? If not, any motion?

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. I'll oppose.

Okay. All right. I need a motion, please.

Put your hand in the air. Okay. So are we still okay working with the wire transfers now? AJ, wire payment FHWA to consider an act upon allowing the treasurer to issue wires to the FHWA going forward.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay, moving over to 8L, ERP system change order to consider and act upon a change order in the amount of $25,000 for the ERP project data connection. Brandon.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed. That passes 5-0. Brendan, do you want to skip down to Haskell County before we go to the budget?

So number eight in Haskell County to consider an act upon a contract to Haskell County for housing inmates. Sheriff, you want to talk about that? Are you same as usual?

And how many do you want to put there right now?

Do I have a motion on this? Any other discussion? Any questions?

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Passes five to zero. Thank you. Okay, there are no employment items. Potter County Projects.

Okay. Any questions for Chris? All right. Thanks, Chris. All right.

Do you want to go ahead and go to the budget and then come back and do jail reporting? I'm going to go ahead and go through all that.

All right. The jail today, we have 612 people in custody. 80 of those are female, 31 are housed and outside of facilities. So we have a total actually in our jail of 581 people. Lubbock has one male. Lynn County has four males. Deaf Smith County has 26, 10 female, and 16 males. And we have 523 felons and 60 misdemeanor cases. All right. Insurance. Nothing. No recs? Yay. Okay. Okay. There is no executive session. We'll come back to upcoming agenda items. So let's go back to the budget to conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget and make any changes necessary. Vote to adopt the budget. Pr

Okay. So you want to let people get up and talk about the raise that they want, even though we're going 2% across the board?

The issue is, though, we've already heard from most everybody before. So is there anybody out in the audience that didn't get to come and speak on here? Stacey? Come on up, Stacey.

Okay. So, Stacey, what do, what are, maybe you can tell me, what are other attorneys making? Why is she making so far under?

You're not first-year, but I mean, what is the starting salary?

How many attorneys? Where did y'all's attorneys start off at? Around 80.

I can personally testify that you guys are busy. I've never seen anything like it. I mean, you're very rarely, you're gone all the time.

Well, I forgave you for that. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But, no, whatever.

So what was the amount again, Stacey, that you want? $115,000.

I understand that. This is a very unique situation. She doesn't work in a group, in an office full of lawyers.

I just think this is a unique situation. Julie, do we have a motion and a second? All right.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second? Yes, ma'am. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed? Passes 4-1. Congratulations, Stacey. You deserve it. I know you do. I'll watch you. You're never there. You cross the hall from me, you're never there.

Thank you. Anybody else want to get up and speak?

Who else? Okay, I have. Someone in the audience, Alexi Kidd that would like to speak on the budget. Good morning. Good morning.

Thank you. Great. Thank you, ma'am. Also, Kristen McClure wants to speak on the budget. Good morning.

All right, the next one is Christine Euford? Euford.

Anybody else? All right. So, Brandon, let's continue on with the... We'll come back to all that. I'm not asking for anything. We're going to go... David, can you... We're going to go office by office. I asked for a 2% COLA. That's all I ask.

I think maybe the running tally, and then we can decide. I didn't know we were going to just go over every step of it today.

No, I don't want to do that. We've already done that. Okay. I mean, I want to know what you wanted to do because you put this together. So do you want to do that again or no?

Mr. Warren, would that help you? Where'd he go? Yeah, there you are. Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Do I have a second? I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Passes. All? Yeah. Passes five as a rule. Okay. Anybody else?

I feel like we're slowly making that tax rate go up. Okay, I have two more people that want to speak.

All right, I have a couple more people. Tiffany Billflower wants to speak. Tiffany, come on up. Or come on down, whatever. How are you today, ma'am? Good.

Ray Greathouse. Good morning. Good morning.

Thank you. So where are we now, Brandon?

Is that your deal, Julie? Is that your deal? It's not yours. Well, no, it's not my deal.

Okay, Brooke, do you mind explaining that to us? I mean, I know you want to increase, but can you tell me?

Yeah. I get that. Okay. Okay. We need to vote on this too.

All right. Do I have a motion on this? Do I have a motion? Well, that dies for lack of a motion. Sorry, Brooke. OK, what else?

Dennis here. He and I discussed it the other day and he says, I see, I see that you said no. And I said, yeah, because okay. So, um, if he's here, we can talk to him again, but he's not here right now. It's coming. We'll pass that one.

So, okay. So, Judge Jackson, do you have court every day?

I know. That's why I was asking how many times.

Sheriff, do you have somebody that could help out with that, or is that something for you, or no? Yes or no? So you would have to hire somebody? And what's the starting pay for a deputy? Okay, I'm going to let you all think on that, Sheriff. We're going to take a ten-minute break. All right, Brandon, I'll let you say what you're going to say.

Anybody else have any remarks? What Blair was talking about? I appreciate you talking about that, but I appreciate what you guys do. Fire Department, but.

Anybody have anything else to say about that?

I understand what you're saying, Blair. I really do. I wish we could do it, but I can't do it. I cannot raise taxes. Right now it's 6.1. It's going to go up to 6.7 if we give everybody what they want. I can't do that. It's just not feasible. So, Sheriff, can you come up and tell me one more time about the person that works in my courthouse, and we could use one of those deputies to be the security at the JP3?

So it's not working yet? No, it's working. Oh, okay. But they have to calibrate it and all that kind of stuff. Does it beep twice if they have a gun? Okay, so we can do that. That would give him what he needs. And that would save, I mean, we only need one at the courthouse.

Yeah. So let's do that. That's one thing.

All right. Judge, you okay with that? It doesn't cost us anything. Okay. All right. What else?

Chair, can I ask you one more question? Are you planning on, since we're doing the Haskell contract, are you planning on keeping the contract with Desmet and Garza and everybody too?

What is the usual wait time for them to come get them?

Anybody else have anything they want to say? So Brandon, what do you want to do? Put everything together and have another meeting? Put everything together and have another meeting tomorrow?

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed? That passes 5-0.

Do you have a motion to accept the proposed budget, 6.1?

Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Raise your hand. Passes 5-0.

Okay, gentlemen, I need a motion on that.

Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Opposed, and that passes.

Okay. Is there anything else we need to do today, Brandon?

So if we're done, we're done. We are adjourned.